Alice Gorman is an area archaeologist: she examines the artifacts of human being encounters with space. These items, left behind on Earth and in space, can be substantial (dead satellites in eternal orbit) or tiny (discarded zip ties around a defunct space antenna). They could be vivid (an American flag over the moon) or hopeful (communications from Earth delivered into deep space). They raise interesting queries: Why did Elon Musk experience compelled to send a reddish Tesla into space? What accounts for the multiple rocket- about Dr Space Junk vs The Universe: Archaeology and the near future themed playgrounds built following the Russians released Sputnik? Gorman-affectionately referred to as ‘Dr Space Junk’-takes readers on a journey through the solar program and beyond, deploying space artifacts, historic explorations, and even the casual cocktail recipe searching for the techniques we make space meaningful.

Participating and erudite, Gorman recounts her background as a (nonspace) archaeologist and how she became thinking about space artifacts. She shows us her very own little bit of space junk: a fragment of the fuel tank insulation from Skylab, the NASA spacecraft that crash landed in Western Australia in 1979. She explains that the conventional view of the area race as ‘the triumph from the white, male American astronaut’ appears inadequate; what actually interests her, she says, is normally how everyday people build relationships space.